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Thursday, June 11, 2015

Naturopathy vs. Aleopathy. Should Your Doctor Use Elements of Both? Part II of my Medical Rant

Let's face it. Fifty years ago, doctors and practitioners (mostly
aleopathic in the US), were not under the constraints they are today:
the threat of medical malpractice, medical school debts, the pressure of
the medical device and big pharma allurements, inflationary insurance, the stress of being overworked, new medical insurance under Obamacare, collegial/medical pressures to "fit in" and systemic bending the rules.

Alternative medicine has taken tremendous strides
as the pressures have been squeezing mainstream doctors. At times, it
would appear that only the few top notch medical industrial complex
doctors connected with teaching universities and hospitals attempt to put into practice their professional Hippocratic oath. The public is NOT as stupid as corporate elites would prefer they be. More
and more they have turned from aleopathy to naturopathy. There are medical
doctors who also practice holistic medicine, implementing the best of both. They are turning away from treatments that they see are often counterproductive to encouraging
patients' immune system healing. These doctors are less prone to
overdiagnosis and overmedication. They continually read different journals and are not so ready to embrace an industrial medical complex
approach. The trick is finding them; they are out there and they are
excellent because they use a number of modalities. They reject the "one
size fits all," stupidity of chemical protocols and systemic medical complex practices. Some are even specialists in
cancer treatment alternatives.

The industrial factory
office is the place where a doctor spends little time with you. It is the place where a surgeon (before a hugely expensive and risky operation), does
not look you in the eye but glances down, looks out the window, or writes notes while talking to a tape recorder. You have to search for a great doctor
who treats his patients so they understand the risks, a doctor who spends time with you, a doctor who follows the professional oath he swore to uphold. (see previous post). And for those
doctors who use the three minute approach? For three minutes (minus the
time you had to wait in the office for your appointment), they get to
charge your insurance company upwards of $60-120 for the visit which may
be a follow-up "hi" and "goodbye." Because insurance pays, and we pay the Co-pay, we may not
think about it. Next time, THINK ABOUT THAT THREE MINUTES. Ask questions; try to GET YOUR MONEY'S WORTH! Or switch doctors if it appears that his time and money are worth more to him than caring for your health and well being.

Increasingly, Naturopaths are receiving licenses as states license them.
These alternative doctors spend much more time with you. They use a
number of ways to check a diagnosis, not the least of which is touch,
observation and listening acutely to the patient. They ask many questions and dig deep. They are skilled in the art of diagnosis and use intuition. They understand that as represented in the doctor's professional oath from long ago, medicine is an art which incorporates experience, intuition, research, education and knowledge. Overdiagnosis with medical instrumentation and/or technology which can overblow "every little infelicity" is much rarer. Over
testing, overmedication, misdiagnosis and other problems are less frequent. They understand that prevention is better than giving a pill for every occasion, a pill which now more than ever comes with multiple side effects. They are not doctors who adhere to the
American Medical establishment's entrenched and egregiously costly
protocol in the service of the corporate medical industrial complex model. They exercise more care; use a holistic approach recognizing the person is least of all the body. They treat the whole person, mind, soul, body. And the good ones do this with logic, brilliance and humanity. And many of them are apprised that with the egregious amounts of chemicals and toxins in our environment, that toxins that are making us sick. Aleopaths discount this. Natropaths and doctors who use both modalities do not. (Dr. Mercola and Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez are two examples of medical doctors who practice both, Gonzalez specializes in cancer interventions which work).

I
have no problem with the corporate medical industrial complex model of seeing the patient as consumer. I have no problem with their looking
for high profits and encouraging the doctors to exploit your illness,
disease, anxiety, stresses. I have no problem with industrial doctors acting in the service of pharmaceutical companies who dispense medication like candy and hook doctors with special rates,perks and freebees that they do not pass on to their consumer-patients. I have no problem with doctors treating "patients" more like clients or that euphemistic phrase found in retail clothing stores, "guests," which does not mask that they see you as a walking wallet. I have no problem with side effects for meds that sometimes include "stroke," "blindness," "death." That is fine. JUST OWN UP TO IT and not in a TV ad that lasts 3 seconds or a huge print-out that may not be clear for those who are loath to read and understand the dangerous side-effects.

With the practice of medicine, we are discussing
life/death/wellness/harm. The medical industrial complex to a large extent is guilty of predation and exploitation of disease and illness which results in harm/death. The determination can always be, "Well, they died of the disease eventually." Well, if there was NO intervention, would the person have lived longer? There are cases, many of them, where this is true. And of course, the opposite is true. There is a risk one takes with a medical doctor who is mainstream and who treats certain illnesses.

On the other hand, wouldn't it help if we, when selecting doctors, could eliminate the ones concerned with making
money, the ones not really adhering to the oath they may have sworn to uphold, the ones who don't care that they are poisoning you in the service of their own profits? In a surreptitious way isn't that occurring when secretaries and assistants hand over the insurance forms for you to
fill out? Are they not saying, "Just give us access your bank account" even though the treatment you get may not really prevent illness over
the long term? Understand why aleopaths are there: for themselves and their families and to treat your systems. They are not equipped to treat the underlying illness or disease and they are clueless to properly diagnose it within a range of varied symptoms which could be any number of diseases for all may run together after a while and often do. Look. That's OK. Doctors just need to own up to where there are in this dark age of unenlightened science heading backwards. Admit it is all I'm suggesting.